The error means the daily regimen for the oral contraceptives may be incorrect and could leave women at risk of an unplanned pregnancy, it said. The defects do not pose any immediate health risks.

What.

The defects do not pose any immediate health risks.

What.

The defects do not pose any immediate health risks.

WHAT.

Um, hello? Homicide during pregnancy is one of the leading causes of pregnant women’s deaths. Rates of domestic violence during an unplanned pregnancy are higher than they are for a planned pregnancy, and some abusers actually begin escalating their abuse when they find out their partner is pregnant. So, yeah, actually, fucking up 1.4 million packages OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST YEAR is actually KIND OF SERIOUS, particularly when you consider that these are, AFAIK, generics, so if you need an emergency replacement your pharmacist may have to offer you a brand-name which may have a higher co-pay… if you have insurance at all. Here’s what some pharmacists are doing what they can:

Pharmacists are trying to call all patients who bought the recalled lots within the last year.

They then try to contact the patients’ doctors to approve a replacement.

Since the recalled pills are all generic medication, often the replacement will be the brand name version of the same pill.

“The brand name drugs are going to have much higher co-pays, which is why people go for the generics anyway, for the most part. And it’s going to be whether the insurance company acknowledges the problem and whether they’ll take care of it,” Oliver said.

ETA: Be careful reading some of the comments to the above links. There are some REALLY hostile men’s rights trolls in them, particularly the CNN one, who are claiming women will use this to screw over men.

I’m going to go ahead and say that an unwanted pregnancy is an immediate health risk. Not because of the risks associated with birth or carrying a pregnancy to term, but because of the cost and travel associated with having to get an abortion. I mean, it’s a procedure that costs between three hundred and a thousand dollars (+ travel costs for people who live in certain places) which many forms of insurance does not cover. And then of course there is the uninsured.

Yes, and there’s medical risks associated with abortion too (less than gestation but still present). Not to mention all the women who wouldn’t choose abortion for themselves, or never thought they’d be in a position where they’d have to make that choice.

Pregnancy may not be a health risk in and of itself, but no matter what you choose there are health risks associated with that choice.